As is known, mechanical means of transport (i.e. vehicles) are mainly made of plastic materials for technical, economical and aesthetical reasons.
The typical fundamental properties of plastic materials in general, are the high ratio between mechanical strength and weight, high impact strength, good weatherability, good resistance to chemical agents, almost zero electric conductivity, high dimensional stability, good ability to elastically absorb vibrations and consequent acoustic deadening, good convertibility by means of rapid and precise mass-production processes, and satisfactory aesthetics making this type of material primarily important for manufacturing of a vehicle.
The interior of any vehicle, be it a motor vehicle, a ship, an aircraft, a train and the like, has furthermore assumed an importance that is fundamental and derives from the technical characteristics of the vehicle.
For example, in the field of car manufacturing, the aesthetics of the interior of a vehicle can even influence the choice of purchasing by a consumer.
Sometimes, however, the use of fine materials, such as for example wood or the like, for the covering of an interior of a vehicle poorly complies with the current need to manufacture vehicles having an extremely low weight, since the weight of the vehicle, the power of the engine, and therefore the fuel consumption and the running costs per kilometer are generally closely interdependent.
For example, in the case of seagoing transport, the weight determines the displacement of the hull, and the resistance of water on the immersed parts mainly depends on the volume of displacement, which is calculated by dividing the displacement in tons by the relative density of water.
The problem worsens in aircraft, in which weight is the main force to be overcome for takeoff.
Consequently, the materials which provide the finishing of the interior of a vehicle, in view of the above, must simultaneously have a low relative density and be aesthetically attractive.
One of the materials still currently most widely used for vehicle interiors is wood and, more precisely, brier.
In the field of car manufacturing, for example, brier, because of its strength, is glued directly onto pre-shaped aluminum supports which are then associated with the vehicle.
Besides, one of the main disadvantages, as regards, for example, the interior of a motor vehicle, is that the materials which constitute it must be able to withstand considerable temperature variations without problems, passing for example from temperatures below zero to much higher temperatures above zero, for example when the vehicle is left in the sun.
In these operating conditions, since the thermal expansion of brier is considerably different from that of aluminum, the brier often tends to separate from the aluminum support or to crack, so that after a relatively short period of time the aesthetic appearance of the brier is completely and inexorably deteriorated.
Aluminum furthermore obviously has a high purchase and processing cost.
Aluminum, before being associated with the brier, must in fact be treated on its surface and requires, in order to obtain a particular configuration, particular dies which have a high cost so that the execution thereof is justified only for mass-productions.
Not least disadvantage of aluminum is also that, despite being one of the lightest metallic materials, its weight penalizes, if used excessively, the lightness of the vehicle.